Brother of French anti-drugs activist shot dead in Marseille amid escalating gang violence

Marseille has been shaken once again by a brutal killing linked to the city’s intensifying drug wars. Mehdi Kessaci, the 20-year-old brother of prominent anti-drug campaigner Amine Kessaci, was shot dead in the city centre — a murder investigators fear may have been a direct threat aimed at the young activist.

Police say Mehdi had just parked his car when a motorcycle pulled up and the passenger fired several shots from a 9mm handgun. Mehdi, who aspired to become a police officer, had no involvement with drug gangs, unlike his older brother Brahim, murdered in 2020 and found burnt in a car — a method chillingly referred to locally as a “barbecue”.

Amine, then a 17-year-old high school student, responded to his brother’s killing by founding Conscience, an organisation offering support to families affected by drug-related violence and helping youths escape gang influence. Today, the association has branches across France, connecting former offenders with employers and offering guidance to grieving families.

Now 22, Amine lives under police protection after receiving multiple death threats. He has run for public office with the Green Party and recently published Marseille, Wipe Your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs, a book depicting life in some of France’s most troubled neighbourhoods.

Local officials expressed shock and outrage. “No mother should endure this — losing two children,” said Marseille Green Party councillor Christine Juste. “It is unacceptable that in France’s second-largest city, people can be murdered so easily in broad daylight.”

Marseille’s northern districts have become battlegrounds for rival gangs competing for control of lucrative trafficking routes. Some killers are as young as 15, and authorities have already recorded 14 drug-related murders this year.

Amine gained national attention in 2021 when he was chosen to meet President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to the city to discuss anti-crime initiatives. At the time, a local newspaper described him as “the kid from the estates who has Macron’s ear.”

Reflecting on his political involvement, Amine writes: “Politics never reached out to me — so I grabbed it by the throat. Brahim, it was you who pushed me into politics the day you burned in that car.”